QUALITY ASSURANCE | QUALITY CONTROL | |
Definition | QA is a set of activities for ensuring quality in the processes by which products are developed or services are delivered. | QC is a set of activities for ensuring quality in products or services. The activities focus on identifying defects in the actual products produced or services delivered. |
Focus on | QA aims to prevent defects with a focus on the process used to make the product or deliver the service. It is a proactive quality process. | QC aims to identify (and correct) defects in the finished product or service delivered. Quality control, therefore, is a reactive process. |
Goal | The goal of QA is to improve development and test processes so that defects do not arise when the product is being developed or the service is being delivered. | The goal of QC is to identify defects after a product is developed and before it is released, or after a service is delivered. |
How | Establish a work process or procedure and the assessment of its adequacy. Periodic conformance audits of the system operation. | Finding and eliminating sources of quality problems through tools and equipment so that customer's requirements are continually met. |
What | Prevention of quality problems through planned and systematic activities including listening to the involved players. | The activities or techniques used to achieve and maintain the product quality, process and service. |
Responsibility | Everyone on the team involved in developing the product or delivering the service is responsible for quality assurance. | Quality control is usually the responsibility of a specific team that tests the product for defects, or assess the service for problems. |
Example | Verification is an example of QA | Validation/Software Testing is an example of QC |
Statistical Techniques | Statistical Tools & Techniques can be applied in both QA & QC. When they are applied to processes (process inputs & operational parameters), they are called Statistical Process Control (SPC); and it becomes part of QA. | When statistical tools & techniques are applied to finished products or services (process outputs), they are called as Statistical Quality Control (SQC) and comes under QC. |
As a tool | QA is a managerial tool | QC is a corrective tool |
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References: Wikipedia, Difen, ISD